Anamorphic pictures are taken by providing an anamorphic lens on the camera. Essentially, the anamorphic lens is of cylindrical shape to result in a "squeezing" of the photographed scene in one dimension. If the axis of the cylindrical surface of the anamorphic lens is vertical, the squeeze on the negative image will be in a horizontal direction whereas if the axis of the cylindrical portion of the anamorphic lens is horizontal, the image will be squeezed in a vertical direction. After a film is developed containing anamorphic images, it can be projected on a wide angle screen by simply incorporating a similar anamorphic lens in the projection system.
There are two advantages to the foregoing systems. First, more of a scene can be captured on a given sized negative than is possible without an anamorphic lens. Second, the projected picture utilizing an anamorphic lens to unsqueeze the image provides a substantially wider view thus simulating more closely the wide angle view of a person's normal vision. Such anamorphic systems have been successful in certain commercial enterprises. An example is motion picture photography utilizing "cinemascope" lens. On the other hand, however, such anamorphic systems have not found any appreciable application among amateur photographers or the average person taking home snapshots. The major reason for this lack of use by the general public is the fact that the negative anamorphic image can really only be practically displayed with equipment presently available by projecting the image through an anamorphic lens on a large screen. Actual printing of anamorphic images in a conventional type enlarging apparatus to provide a printed picture has not been successful because of distortion.
As a consequence of the foregoing, if a person wished to provide a printed picture of a scene in a wide angle format; that is, wherein the print is perhaps three to six times as long as it is high, a fairly large film negative has been used and then the picture cropped at the top and bottom when printing the same in the conventional enlarger.